Harvester



Jan. 10, 1939. R. G. FLEMING 2,143,264

HARVESTER Original Filed July 2'7, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet l Jan. 10, 1939. R. e. FLEMING HARVESTER Original Filed July 27, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet efliciently at comparatively high speed to there-- Patented Jan. 10, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,143,264 mmvss'mn Robert G. Flemi g, Galva, Ill. Original application July 27, 1936, Serial No.

92,159. Divided and 1937, Serial No; 147,890

4: Claims.

The subject matter of this application has'been divided out of my co-pending application for Combine harvester filed July 2'7, 1936, Serial No.

tor provided with a power take-off.

The objects of my invention are to provide a machine of this character which'may be operated by cut a comparatively high acreage in a given time.

A further object is to provide a machine of this class which will operate atmaximum eificiency on hillsides where one side of the harvester is elevated a substantial distance above the other side, and also which will operate at maximum straight lines through the machine with all operations carried on'upon the full width of the swath, and whereby the various operations are carried out upon a relatively thin mass of the material.

A further object is to provide means forforcibly feeding into the threshing mechanism all of the material cut by the sickle and to prevent the accumulation of material upon the sides of the swath boards.

A further object is to provide means, for adjustably supporting the reel and for driving it in any of its adjusted positions to thereby adapt it for efflciently handling crops of widely divergent natures.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 shows a top or plan view of a machine embodying my invention.

Figure 2 shows a side elevation of same. Figure 3 shows a vertical longitudinal sectional View of same; and

Figure 4 shows a detail perspective view illus-- trating my improved means for removing materials from the swath boards and forcing them into the threshing mechanism.

Referring to the accompanying drawings I have used the reference numeral Ill to indicate generally the machine frame mounted upon two the main frame is the this application June 12,

harvester body, indicated generally by the reference numeral l2, and this body is made capable of being tilted to any desired position by means of the lever l3 pivoted in the frame In and having a crank arm I4 connected by a link Ha with the harvester frame l2.

At the forward end of the main frame is a sickle bar i5 of ordinary construction, and at the ends of the sickle bar are the swath boards IS, the top surfaces of which incline upwardly and rearwardly.

At the rear of the sickle bar is a roller l1, and spaced rearwardly therefrom is a guide roller Ila, and mounted in the frame at a point spaced upwardly and rearwardly from the roller Fla is a third roller l'lb, an endless belt conveyor l'lc, having cross slats lid is mounted on said rollers. Its lower portion at the front end is held in a substantially horizontal position by the rollers l1 and Ila. Mounted on the frame at the rear of the'sickle bar at one edge of the endless conveyor is a curved guide l8. A similar guide is placed at the opposite edge of the conveyor-not shown. These guides extend rearwardly and then upwardly and rearwardly, and are adapted to frictionally engage the tops of the cross slats of the conveyor and thereby direct the movement of the conveyor from the sickle first rearwardly in a nearly horizontal position and then upwardly and rearwardly, to form a flat spot upon which the material severed by the sickle bar will fall and be retained, thereby eliminating the tendency of the severed material to fall forwardly off of a steeply inclined conveyor. By this means the harvester may be made relatively short and the conveyor inclined'upwardly at a steep angle and the cutter bar may be run close to the ground and yet all of the cut material will fall upon what I have termed the flat spot of the conveyor and from there be carried upwardly and rearwardly.

At the rear of the conveyor I1 is the threshing mechanism which consistsof a rotatable brush I9 extended transversely of the machine and contained within the brush casing 20. On the interior of the casing is a series of inwardly extended baffles 2| forming between them pockets or compartments 22. This casing is open at its front to receive'material to be threshed from the conveyor [1, and it has anopening at its bottom through which the material is discharged. The top of the brush moves rearwardly through this casing. During a threshing operation the brush creates a considerable amount of wind, and in some materials it creates a great amount of dust.

For the purpose of preventing this wind and dust from passing out through the intake opening of the casing I have provided a deflector plate 23 located at the lower forward portion of the brush and extendedstraight upwardly so that the current of wind created by the brush is thrown straight upwardly at the front of the brush against the inclined deflector plate 24 which extends upwardly and rearwardly and thus returns the dust and wind back into the casing so that the wind does not interfere with the entrance of material into the threshing mechanism, and so that no dust will be discharged out through the intake opening of the casing.

Beneath the threshing mechanism is the combined retarding and screening device which com-- prises a sheet metal wall 25 extended downwardly from the forward side of the discharge opening from the threshing mechanism, and then curved rearwardly and upwardly and provided with relatively large perforations 26 to perform a preliminary screening operation. Mounted within this wall and screen 25 and 26 is a retarder comprising a rotary shaft 2'! provided with a hollow body 28 from which there projects radially a series of flexible retarder blades 29, and these blades in their movement touch or come close to the screen portion of the wall 25.

The said harvesting mechanism, retarder member and stripper are all of substantially the same length, and the swath of material being operated on goes through them along substantially straight lines from front to rear of the machine without at any point materially increasing the thickness of the material being operated on from that of the original swath as it was cut.

In practice the threshing mechanism is rotated at comparatively high speed in order to operate efiiciently, and due to the fact that it creates a large amount of wind it would normally tend to throw the threshed material violently to a considerable distance. With my improved retarding device, however, the material thus threshed immediately passes into the pockets of the retarding device formed by the radial blades 29 and the wall 25. This retarding device operates at relatively slow speed so that during operation one of the pockets 28 is substantially filled with threshed material, including the straw, chafi, weeds, etc., and then this particular pocket moves downwardly across the wall 25 until it reaches the screen 26, at which point the major portion of the grain and small chaff passes through the large openings of the screen, and the straw, weeds and trash, etc., are discharged from the rear of the screen by the flexible blades. All of the wind which accompanies the material being threshed isdefiected from the material in these pockets, and it passes upwardly and rearwardly over the stripper 30. By this means obviously, the machine can be built of relatively short length and compact arrangement and greatly increased efiiciency.

In front of the retarding and screening mechanism is a fan casing 38 in which is contained a fan 39 having at its top an inlet opening 40, and the outlet opening 4| extends rearwardly to the lower end of the fan casing and projects from one side of the machine frame to the other the full width of the swath being cut by the sickle. In the intake opening 40 I have provided a damper 42. At the end of the damper is a lever 43, and an adjustable rod 44 connects such lever with a part of the main frame 0.

In operation with this damper, when the front end of the machine and the sickle are moved downwardly close to the ground the, damper is opened to deliver a relatively large blast of air from the fan, and when the front end of the machine is elevated the damper is moved toward closed position to deliver a relatively small amount of air blast to the space between the screens 26 and 3|. The function of this fan 39 is as follows: During the operation of the machine substantially all of the grain and chaff and light materials pass through the screen 26, whereas the straw, trash, etc., are carried beyond the delivery end of the screen 26. This straw and chaff will normally fall by gravity upon the top of the'perforated conveyor and will tend to'fiow through the openings of said conveyor. However, the chaff would normally fill a large proportion 'of said openings and thus prevent the grain from going through. With my improvement, and by creating a wind blast of suitable pressure delivered rearwardly directly beneath the screen 26 and during the passage of the material from the screen 26 to the screen 3|, substantially all of the chaff and lighter particles are blown rearwardly and outwardly over the screen 3|, so that only the grain and heavier particles fall upon the perforated conveyor 3|. Hence, a maximum efiiciency is attained for this screen 3|.

In this connection, the operation of the damper 40 is as follows: When the forward end of the machine is at its downward limit of movement the screen 3| is inclined upwardly at a relatively steep angle, and it requires a heavier blast of air to carry the chaff and straw upwardly and rearwardly over it, whereas, when the front of the machine is elevated the screen 3| is nearer to a horizontal position and, hence, a relatively less blast of air is suificient to carry away the straw and chaff, and a heavier air blast might carry grain with it over the rear of the conveyor 3|. With my improvement the amount of the air blast is proportioned automatically by the position of the cutter bar relative to the ground.

At the point where the material is being delivered into the threshing mechanism I have provided a means for stripping the material from the rear ends of the swath boards and compressing said material and forcing it into the threshing mechanism. This device comprises a slatted conveyor 45 having sprocket chains 46, the top portion of the conveyor being substantially horizontal and the lower portion of the conveyor being bowed downwardly. For the purpose of holding the lower portion of the conveyor in this position I have provided spring guides 41 at the opposite sides of the conveyor, curved downwardly and rearwardly in a direction causing a portion of the slatted conveyor to move downwardly and rearwardly across the upwardly and rearwardly inclined portion of the swath boards, and the ends of these slats move close to the inner surfaces of the swath boards.

In practice it frequently happens that large stalks, vines, weeds, etc., when cut off by the sickle fall over the swath boards and are carried up by the conveyor and become lodged at the upper ends of the swath boards. B means of my improvement all such material is engaged by the slatted conveyor and stripped from the swath boards and compressed in a small enough area to enter the casing of the threshing mechanism.

For supporting the reel 48 I have provided two arms 49 pivoted to the frame at 50. The reel is mounted upon brackets slidingly mounted on the arms 49, one of said brackets being adjustably fixed to one of the arms 48 by means of a pin I2 which may be placed in any of the slots 53. The reel is provided with a beveled gear 54 in mesh with a beveled gear 55, which latter gear is driven through a shaft 56 having a telescopic member 51 and universal joints It. By this means the reel may be moved forwardly and rearwardly as desired and driven by the shaft 56 to any position of its adiustment. The arms 49 are yieldingly held in their elevated position by a spring 59. The reel is driven from the axle of the driving wheels it through the sprocket gearing 60 and belt and pulley device 6i. The reel may also be adjusted upwardly and downwardly relative to the cutter by means of the crank 82 connected by the rod 88 with the lever i4.

The several portions of my harvester are driven from a shaft intended to be connected with a power take-oi! from a tractor, and power from the shaft 65 is transmitted through various gearing mechanisms at the speed at which it is desired to drive the various parts. This mechanism consists of ordinary gearing devices which it is believed unnecessary to here specifically-describe.

I have embodied my invention in a full sized machine which I have successfully and ei'flciently operated in crops of widely diversified character, and have had excellent results with such crops as soy beans, clover and grain stalks of unusually great lengthand also unusualy short stalks.

I have also successfully operated my machine on hillsides and uphill and downhill, and have demonstrated that my machine will successfully and eillciently thresh crops under all hillside conditions where an ordinary binder can be successfully operated. v

I claim asmy invention:

1. In a harvester, the combination of a frame, a cutter at the front of the frame, a conveyor 49 leading from the cutter rearwardly and upward- 1!. a swath board onthe frame at one side of the conveyor, and a second conveyor located above the rear end of the first conveyor and movable in a direction to engage material onthe first conveyor and compress it and move it rearwardly.

m of the swath board and close to the inner face thereof, for removing stalks and trash lodged in the swath board and projected inwardly therefrom, and deposit same upon the first conveyor.

2. In a harvester, the combination of a frame,

a cutter at the front of the frame, a conveyor leading from the cutter rearwardly and upwardly, a swath board on the frame at one side of the conveyor, a second conveyor located abovethe and rearwardiy relative to the upper edge of the swath board and close to the inner face thereof for removing stalks and trash lodged on the swath board and projecting inwardly therefrom,

,and deposit same upon the first conveyor.

3. In a harvester, the combination of a fram}, a cutter at the forward end of the frame, a conveyor for carrying material from the cutter, said conveyor comprising an endless flexible conveyor belt having cross slats on its outer surface, means for supporting and operating the conveyor so that its upper portion moves in an upward and rearward direction from the cutter, and means for guiding said conveyor so that immediately in the rear of the cutter it will move in a path more nearly horizontal than the remainder of the conveyor to prevent material thereon from falling downwardly and forwardly toward the cutter by gravity, said means comprising stationary guides fixed to the frame and projected inwardly over the top of the conveyor and to position for engaging a plurality of the conveyor slats at all times, the forward portion of said guides having their slat engaging surfaces approximtely horizontal and their rear portions inclined upwardly.

4. In a harvester, the combination of a frame, a cutter, a conveyor within the frame for carryingmaterial rearwardly from the cutter, a swath board at one side of the frame extended above the conveyor, means for engaging stalks and trash lodged on the upper edge of the swath board and forcibly. moving them downwardly and rearwardly across the swath board and upon the conveyor, said means comprising stalk and trash engaging devices located at the inner side of the swath board and means for moving same from position spaced above the swath board downwardly and rearwardly across the top surface of the swath board. ROBERT G. FLEMING. 

